New Apartment

Olà Tudo bem?

I hope that everything is well at home. Everything is great here; it was another week in paradise. This week was a little crazy because we moved apartments. We had less time to work because it took 2 whole days to move from one apartment to the other. Our first apartment was really close to the church and everything but was really old. We received a new companionship of sisters and a married couple this transfer so we had to get a new apartment and the sisters moved into our old one. Our new apartment is so nice. It has that toilet seat that slows down as you close it, ugh living the dream. 

The new married couple missionaries arrived this week, the Shlofman's. They are from Utah but Sister Shlofman was born in Brazil and moved to the United States for school. She met Elder Shlofman there at BYU and the rest is history. It was funny to she them the first day they were here because they appeared the same way I felt my first day. They looked totally lost and overwhelmed. But the best part was that they were a little rusty in Portuguese so they spoke English with us. It was weird speaking English.  My English is really bad. I can't speak English or Portuguese really well right now.  It's kind of hard but my Portuguese is improving. I like to think if I could see myself right now the first day I entered the MTC I would be really impressed with myself. 

We taught a couple of cool people this week. Elder Jan and Elder Ward (Elder Jan's old companion) did work here and they found a lot of cool people. I get the honor of teaching some of them. One of the people we have started teaching is Emanuela. She is originally from Brazil but now lives in Portugal (obviously) and she was baptized when she was 14. She lost contact with the church and moved to Portugal years later. She was in a really bad car accident which temporarily paralyzed half of her body and permanently paralyzed her face, blind in her left eye and lost a bit of her memory. One day a couple of weeks ago she prayed that she could come back in contact with the church again. At that same moment Elder Ward knocked on her door. We taught her this week and were able to give her a blessing. Her daughter who is 14 years old right now happened to be there. She asked a lot of questions about the church. Her mom helped explain the difference between the baptism she had when she was 14 and the baptism her daughter had. Her daughter now wants to be baptized.

Never forget spiritual experiences. Doubt is a powerful weapon the adversary has and is very destructive.  We are strengthened by the promptings we receive from the holy ghost that testify that these things our true. Those peaceful feelings require faith and allow us to grow. When we begin to question those feelings our faith diminishes. Doubt and faith can not exist in the same mind. Don't forget those experiences. Think about where those thoughts of doubt are coming from. When we do that our faith will grow and we will be better disciples.

Beijinhos,

Elder Fogg

Transfer to Loulé

Week 19 - This week was good. Transfers happened. We missed our bus on Tuesday so we didn't get to our new area until almost 11 at night. I am here with Elder Jan.  He is from Switzerland. He speaks 5 languages. He is also 23 years old. He served in the Swiss army and I found out that they do use Swiss army knives in the Swiss army. We are in Loulé but we have a car (I want to call it the baptismobile) but we work in Albufeira and Quarteira. Don't have much time this week but all is well and I am alive.

Beijinhos,

Elder Fogg

 

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Happy Valentine's Day

Olà Meus Amigos!

I hope every thing is swell back home! We had a super great week here in paradise! We worked really hard in trying to find new people to teach this week (basically the achilles heel of our work). We talked with a lot of people in the streets and basically everywhere. I hope that Valentine's day went well for all the couples out there. 

 

Met a lot of cool people with a lot of potential! Baptism! We also have been using a Family history banner to try to find new people. Besides having the background for some pretty cool pictures it helps us fulfill our purpose as missionaries. 

This week Elder Soares of the seventy came to visit our mission. He is from Brazil and knew President Tavares before President Tavares was called to be a mission President. He talked a lot about how we can improve our work as missionaries through knowing our purpose/our calling, planning and following through on goals that we set. He gave a lot of good advice. It was fun seeing the other missionaries from my MTC district and the progress that they have made. It was a fun reunion. Elder Soares also chose four missionaries to interview. Don't want to say that I am going to be the next prophet but I was chosen. It was a good thing that he speaks English because it would have been a pretty silent and awkward interview if he hadn't.

 

Beijinhos,

Elder Fogg

No umbrella

Olá? Tudo Bem!

 

This is the highlight of this week. We taught a lesson with this older Portuguese lady named Elise. We walked with her from her house to the church building. When we started teaching her  there were clear skies. When we finished teaching her it was pouring rain. And no one brought an umbrella. We ran back to our apartment in the rain and gave her  one of our umbrellas. When we were walking home the other two umbrellas we were using broke. So now we don't have any umbrellas here which is a problem. It rained a lot this week and because we have no umbrellas we got really wet, not in the baptism kind of way. It was more of  the walking around the streets of Portugal for hours with wet shocks and wet shoes and wet hair kind of wet which is isn't as fun. But we bought an umbrella so we get less wet now. Also this Sunday our recent convert Wilker received the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

 

Elder Soares of the seventy is visiting our mission this week. We set a goal to read the Book of Mormon as a whole before he arrived. I set a goal to read it in Portuguese. I didn't understand much but I am almost finished. I just finished Mormon this morning. I think I am going to finish it! Read that book -- it will change your life. 

Pictures

Houston, we have splash down!

Olà tudo bem?

Houston we have splash down. This week our amigo Wilker was baptized. Super cool. He was prepared before we even talked to him for the first time. We usually check up on how the reading is going in the Book of Mormon and usually our amigos don't ever read so we read with them most of the time. On our third meeting with Wilker, we asked if he had read in the Book of Mormon at all (we had given him the Book of Mormon 3 days earlier at the last visit we had with him). He said he hadn't, so we were like "Ok let's read together, where are you in the book". He said "page 205". What he meant by no, was that he hadn't had time to read that day. Let's just say we didn't feel like it was necessary to read with him on that visit.

His house is also literally in the middle of no where. It was really fun trying to find it for the first time. When we first met him, it was in the middle of Odivelas and he didn't have a car so we thought his house was within walking distance. After we used basically a whole day to try to find his house in Ramada, we gave up and used a taxi. By taxi, it takes about 20 minutes. We decided it would probably be a better use of the Lord's time if we used a bus. The buses only pass by his house every half an hour to go back to Odivelas. After a visit with him, we were waiting for the bus. I was looking down the street and I saw our bus coming around the corning. I alerted Elder Thompson that our bus was coming. I said «Nine Three Four» in English. It got closer and closer and it wasn't slowing down. As it flew by, I was like «Essa foi ela». Elder Thompson asked me why I didn't do the signal. Now I know when a bus is coming you stick out your right arm to alert it you want it to stop.

The baptism was really fun too. Got a little wet but it was worth it. Elder Thompson and I were scared that I was going to mess up in Portuguese so we practiced at least 5000 times. It didn't help either that Wilker's full name is 5 names long and very not white bread American like John Jacob Jingle type. His name is more like Waka Flaka kfhgdjghskdgh DLgj Wilker. Nailed it.

It was really interesting to see the gospel change his life and see how he has grown. The first time we asked him to pray he had a lot of trouble but the last visit we had with him before the baptism, his prayer was amazing. We literally did nothing with his conversion. He often talked about how when he read the Book of Mormon, he felt different. The Book of Mormon was the difference maker. We have been focusing on using the Book of Mormon a lot in our work this week. One of our other amigos asked why we talk so much about the Book of Mormon. Everyone has the Bible but the book of Mormon is literally proof that God is still talking even today. That he has not changed. That just like in times of old, he calls prophets. That book is powerful. I feel peace when I read and receive strength from it. I know that that book is true.